Graham Norton took aim at the royal family during the opening of his eponymous chat show on Friday (2 December).
Starting as he always does with some topical jokes, Norton showed the audience a photo of Prince William and Kate Middleton attending a recent basketball match in Boston, USA.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled and fascinated if I were Prince William looking at a basketball,” Norton said in front of the photo, which showed William looking perplexed at the ball.
“Has he never seen one before?” Norton asked the audience, then quipped: “It’s like his godmother talking to a Black person.”
Norton was mocking the recent scandal involving Lady Susan Hussey, a former lady-in-waiting to the late Queen Elizabeth II and William’s godmother.
Charity founder Ngozi Fulani was attending a reception held by the Queen Consort when she says Hussey persistently asked her what part of Africa she came from after she told her she was British.
Hussey has since been forced to resign from her role as a royal aide at Buckingham Palace and expressed her “profound apologies for the hurt caused” via a statement.
William, currently in the US preparing for the latest instalment of his Earthshot Prize awards ceremony, also issued a statement, saying that “racism has no place in society”.
Speaking to The Independent about her encounter, Fulani said: “This is bigger than one individual. It’s institutional racism.
“What’s the lesson here? When I drove into the palace, the car was searched and we were searched, as you would expect, because they have to protect the household. But what protects us, Black people, from that treatment? This incident is unfortunate and shows that nothing has changed.”
Read her full account of her interaction with Hussey here.
